Copyright For Librarians

The rights of people who have participated in the creation of a copyrighted work, but who did not “write” it, and for a variety of reasons do not normally qualify for traditional forms of copyright.

Neighboring rights are copyrights that exist adjacent to more traditional author’s copyrights, and are granted to a few specific categories of person. The term most often refers to. Examples might include the sound engineers at a recording studio, the performers of a musical composition, or a broadcast organization.

Neighboring rights as such do not exist in all copyright law systems. Some jurisdictions subsume them within “copyright” in general without treating them as any different.

As just one example, the Rome Convention explicitly addresses the rights of performers and producers of sound recordings.

See also:

• Rome Convention

Other resources:

• PDF of 1999 Tanzanian Copyright and Neighboring Rights Act
• European Space agency's page on copyright and neighboring rights
• Wikipedia article on "related rights"
• 1996 article "WIPO: Copyright, Neighboring Rights in the Digital Age"
• IFL document "Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Digital Environment: An International Library Perspective
• CCAAA statement on copyright and neighboring rights at the 13th session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, WIPO, Geneva, 21st-23rd November 2005
• UNESCO: "Basic Notions About Copyright And Neighbouring Rights"